COLORADO SPRINGS GAZETTE

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Quadruplets are rare, and quintuplets even more so.

So what are the odds of a set of each landing in the same half-day kindergarten classroom in Colorado Springs? Astronomical.

But quints Alexis, Anthony, Jiliana, Joshua, and Julian, and quads Benjamin, Cooper, Derek and Zachary are indeed together in Melissa Coleman’s afternoon kindergarten class at Prairie Hills Elementary School in Academy School District 20. That’s five Dennys and four Langenbahns out of 25 students.

Coleman, the mother of 4-year-old twin boys, isn’t bothered in the least.

“I get 25 different kindergartners every year,” said Coleman, who had two sets of identical twins in her classroom last year. “Some of these kids just happen to live in the same house.”

Coleman’s openness to having “multiples” in her class is partly why the quints and quads are there.

April Langenbahn, the mother of the quads, said her older son, Trevor, had been in Coleman’s kindergarten class so she talked to her about taking on the four younger boys – two sets of identical twins.

The quints’ mom, Lyndsey, said she talked to four D-20 principals before choosing Prairie Hills. She had met Coleman at Moms of Multiples functions and knew she understood the family dynamics of multiples.

“It’s important to have someone who understands because I know that from the start my kids outnumber you five to one,” Denny said.

Both moms wanted to keep their kids together for kindergarten and they both wanted a half-day class. (Consider the alternative: the logistical nightmare of having some kids in the morning class and some in the afternoon.)

During class activities, Coleman encourages the siblings to sit at different tables and to play with other children, just as she does with preschool or neighborhood buddies who land in her classroom together. But the challenge of educating multiples — twins and up — won’t end in her classroom.

The issue of whether to keep multiples together in school is one of the biggest questions for their parents, Coleman said, noting that it’s a popular topic at gatherings for parents of multiples.

Denny and Langenbahn said they think they’ll probably put their kids in different classrooms after this year, at least to some extent — maybe splitting them up three and two for the Dennys and two and two for the Langenbahns.

Coleman said she’ll work with the parents through the year to help them make those choices, which she believes must be re-evaluated yearly because so many factors are involved: academic progress, social skills, family dynamics, teachers and the like.

Despite the flurry of attention the classroom is getting as news of “the nine” spreads, it’s pretty much like other kindergarten groups in the second week of school. The kids are wide-eyed at their new environment, excited by virtually everything and anxious to please.

Parents anxiously wait outside the door at the end of the day to hear the schools tales.

“On the first day they were so excited,” Langenbahn said. “They were ready an hour and a half before it was time to go.

“I was not ready. I signed them up for kindergarten and went out and got a puppy. The house is so quiet.”

On the bright side, Langenbahn said, “I can get in and out at the grocery store in 45 minutes.”

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